


daddy lessons

by their_dark_materials



Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dad! Aaron Dingle, Dad! Cain Dingle, Deleted Scenes, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Canon, Post-Reunion 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 05:17:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14013000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/their_dark_materials/pseuds/their_dark_materials
Summary: “Listen to me closely, because I’m only going to do this once,” Cain tells him, gently lifting Isaac out of the stroller and laying him across the blanket he’s placed on the dining table. He starts sliding the baby’s jeans off.Aaron looks at him in surprise. “Wait. Are you showing me how to change a nappy?”Or, after Aaron avoids yet another nappy change, Cain takes matters into his own hands. [Set during a recent episode.]





	daddy lessons

“Here he is! Fresh as a daisy!”

He watches as his mother hands Seb back to Aaron, who takes him from her gratefully. “Thanks, Gran. You’re a _lifesaver_.”

“Anytime _Luv_. That’s what great grandmas are for,” Faith says, smiling down at them both. “He’s a cute one, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Aaron replies, smiling down at the infant in his arms. “Though don’t tell _Robert_ that. He’s already got a photo show of all of Seb's best outfits cued up on his phone, and he won't even let _me_ get out of it. And I'm  _in_ half of them!”

(Cain snorts at that. Because  _of course_ Sugden would.)

A second later, Faith’s attention is on _Isaac_ , the baby currently sitting back in his stroller, calmly watching everything unfold as he sucks on a toy. “Oh, I didn’t mean to exclude _you_ , Isaac, my love. _You’re_ looking sharp as well.”

His mother finally addresses him. “I take it _Moira_ dressed him then?”

Aaron snickers at that in the background, but the older man ignores it.

“ _No_. Actually, _I_ did.”

He sounds annoyed and defiant, but that’s both because his mother seems to always bring out this side of him _and_ because he’s actually quite _proud_ of what his son’s wearing today. He may not really be much of an expert on babies _or_ fashion, but Isaac’s wrapped up nice and warm, and they’d actually gotten a few compliments on their way to the pub, with _complete strangers_ cooing over his son’s outfit. For half a second he’d even considered sending Moira a picture of the whole spectacle, with the caption, “ _See. Not so bad, am I?_ ” (But that’s only because she’d laughed at him for half a day once because he hadn’t realised that Isaac might need a shirt under his overalls, which _honestly_ is a common mistake to make.)

 _Maybe Sugden is onto something with this photoshop business_.

Faith just raises her eyebrows at him and gives him an impressed nod. “Well, I’m proud of you son. Couldn’t have been easy.”

He opens his mouth to respond, but she’s already off, flitting away to talk to Eric as he walks through the door — as if the pair of them don’t _already_ spend too much time together.

Shaking his head, he turns his attention back to his nephew, who’s busy bouncing Seb on his knee, pretending he isn’t listening in, an amused smile threatening to break out across his face.

“Oi, you better not be smirkin’ at _me_ ,” Cain says, letting his tone get just a _little_ bit more threatening. “What’s this about _you_ not changing any nappies?”

Aaron’s smile vanishes at that. 

Cain gives the younger Dingle a pointed look. “What’s the matter? You havin’ second thoughts or somethin’?”

From the look on Aaron’s face at even the _insinuation_ of that, he knows that’s not the case. (Not that he needed the confirmation to know that the younger man is _all in_ on this relationship and the responsibilities that come with it. He’d said as much on Chas’ birthday, and Aaron Dingle is not a liar — at least about things like _this_.)

So he simply waits for an answer.

Aaron squirms under his stare for half a minute before sighing.

“I'm not havin' second thoughts or anything like _that.._. It’s all just…” He gives the older man a sheepish grin and shrugs. “It’s all just a bit _disgustin’_ isn’t it?”

He must read the confusion on Cain’s face, because he follows it up with, “It’s not that I’ll _never_ do it. I _know_ I can’t avoid it forever, it’s just that whenever he poos, there’s always _so much of it_. And I’m not sure where it all comes from because all we’ve been feedin’ him is _milk_.”

And suddenly Cain _gets it_. He snorts in understanding.

“Alright. Come with me,” he says, getting to his feet and bending over to pick up Isaac.

Aaron doesn’t move, just sits there, holding Seb with a confused look on his face. Cain glares at him. “Don’t make me ask again.”

The younger man all but _jumps_ to his feet.

:::::

A few moments later, they’re both standing in the living room at the back. Isaac parked in his stroller, and Aaron perched on the arm of the sofa, bouncing Seb on his knee.

“What’re we doin’ here?” He asks, confused.

“Do you love him?” Cain asks, fetching the bag tucked under his son’s stroller and unpacking it on the dining room table.

“Of course I do, he’s my _son_.”

The word sounds a little strange coming out of the young man’s mouth, but only because Cain wasn’t expecting to ever hear that word from him so soon. He’d thought his nephew was a couple of years out from becoming a dad. If anything, he’s impressed by the fierceness in Aaron’s tone as he says it. Like he’s laying it down as a challenge.

“Right. Then listen to me closely, because I’m only going to do this once,” Cain tells him, gently lifting Isaac out of the stroller and laying him across the blanket he’s placed on the dining table. He starts sliding the baby’s jeans off.

Aaron looks at him in surprise, his disbelieving amusement coming across nice and loud. “Wait. Are _you_ showing me how to change a nappy?” 

Cain fixes him with a firm stare, the kind that tends to get across that he means 100% business. His nephew sobers up at that, ceasing his bounces for a second.

“The first time I did this, I needed at least a _million_ of them baby wipes,” he tells him quietly as he goes about the whole process of taking off the diaper Isaac currently has on. Predictably, it smells like death itself. “Because you’re right, it’s _absolutely disgusting_ what these little fellas are able to produce with absolutely _no_ real food in their diets.”

He thinks back to his sheer panic that he might get some of Isaac’s shit on him — something that hadn’t been helped by his mother’s story of how he himself used to _burst_ out of his own nappies. Thankfully, everything had gone relatively smoothly, with him just getting a _tiny_ bit on him in the process. But the whole experience had left him with a sobering realisation that had only really crystalised when he’d gotten back home and had to do the whole thing _all over again_ and by himself. (And if he’s being honest with himself, it’s something that’s been happening every time _since_.)

He looks down at Isaac, as he lifts his little legs and slides the fresh diaper under his now-clean bottom, his movements having become more self-assured with experience and time — something he’d _never_ have considered happening the first time he’d done this — and continues, “But I’ll tell you what. You think you love that little boy _now_. Then just wait until you’ve changed your _fiftieth_ nappy and you realise you’ve got a little bit of _his_ poo on _your_ forehead, but that you’re too tired to do anything about it, and that you’re just glad he’s _finally_ stopped crying. Because you’ll realise that if _you_ can get through _that_ , then there’s _nothing_ you _won’t_ do for him.”

Now done, he slides Isaac’s jeans back onto him, his son giving him a bright smile as he does so, almost like a silent, _Thanks, Dad_.

He finds himself automatically smiling right back in response. _Don’t mention it, son._

When he finally does look up at Aaron, he finds himself at the receiving end of _his_ Dingle staredown. Only instead of a joke at his expense or a comment on his display of vulnerability, he gets a, “I guess I never thought of it like that.”

Cain nods in response. Because that was him once.

“Good. Because next time, _you’re_ changing him.” He nods at Isaac as he says that. It’s meant as a joke, but he’s got his serious face on just so he can watch his nephew brick it.

“Wait, _what_?!” Aaron exclaims in surprise, looking as flabbergasted as he’d expected.

Cain raises his eyebrows at that, extending the joke _a little_ longer.

“Are you saying you don’t love your _cousin_?”

:::::

He’s just finished loading up the dishwasher — they’d decided to give Liv a pass considering the news about Lisa — when he hears Gerry’s reaction from over by the sofas where he and Robert are seated, the latter busy playing with Seb, his first _real_ chance to have done so all day.

“Pee-ew!” The teenage boy exclaims. “Who’d have thought somethin’ so small could smell _so_ bad?!”

He fans the air in front of his face. “Makes me glad, _I’m_ not a baby. Imagine having to smell _that_ _and_ know _you’re_ the one responsible.”

“Yours aren’t much better you know,” Robert responds on his son’s behalf. “Don’t think we can’t smell them. I’d bring a candle to the office if I didn’t think you might burn the _entire cabin_ down.”

Gerry has the good sense to at least _blush_ at this news.

Having said his piece, Robert slowly gets to his feet, bending down to pick up his son, a moment later.

“Actually, hang on,” Aaron tells him, stepping forward towards them. “I can do it.”

He walks over and holds his hands open, giving his husband an expectant look.

“You sure?” Robert asks, pleasantly surprised by this latest twist, but unable to resist the urge to pull his leg — not that it stops him from handing over the smelly infant. “You haven’t exactly been volunteering for nappy duty.”

Aaron simply shrugs as he takes him. “Yeah. Well, gotta start _sometime_.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is actually my first time writing from Cain's point of view, so I really hope I got his character right. As for Aaron's, I feel like his views in this are fitting with what we've seen on screen. He's pretty much declared that he considers Seb his son by calling Chas, "Nana," so that's how I've treated it since that scene was supposed to have taken place right before this one. 
> 
> Also, I hope I don't offend anyone who IS a parent with what Cain says about changing Isaac's diaper. While I myself am not a parent, this is something I've heard both my mum and my cousin with kids say about their own experiences of changing diapers. So I borrowed from that. 
> 
> If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, or concerns, please go ahead and drop me a line below, or find me on Tumblr under rustandruin. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
